Green Mountain Surges after Choosing Coke Exec as New CEO

By Avi Salzman

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ (GMCR) board turned to a top executive at Coca-Cola to run the company, and investors are cheering.

The stock is up more than 6% after the company announced that Brian Kelley, who was just appointed president of Coca-Cola Refreshments and would have started that job in January 2013, will be the new CEO and president of GMCR. He’ll also sit on the board. Kelley will take over as CEO on December 3, replacing Lawrence Blanford, who had previously said he would step down. Kelley is currently the chief product supply officer at Coca-Cola Refreshments, the North American unit of Coke. He’s also had other roles at the company:

“In his prior role as President of North America Business Integration, he led the total integration of the acquisition of the North American assets of Coca-Cola Enterprises, combining Coca-Cola North America and Coca-Cola Enterprises’ North American operations into a new company, Coca-Cola Refreshments.”

“With its truly disruptive Keurig brewing technology, GMCR’s accomplished something unique in the world of consumer products: it is changing consumer behavior by changing the way we brew and enjoy coffee, ” said Kelley in the company’s release.

While GMCR’s brewers have changed the coffee industry, the company has ceased to be the “disruptor” and is now back on its heels. Starbucks (SBUX) introduced a new single-serve brewer this year and other companies are taking advantage of GMCR patent expirations to develop their own brewers.

The company has also been under scrutiny from the SEC because of its accounting procedures.

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